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Former Gov. Spitzer can't censor court papers

A judge has rejected former Gov. Eliot Spitzer's attempt to keep his name out of documents related to the prostitution probe that forced him from office.

U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff on Tuesday released a copy of an order he signed last week in which he ruled against Spitzer. The judge found that he lacked jurisdiction and that Spitzer had delayed challenging the public release of documents in the probe of his involvement with the Emperor's Club escort service.

Associated PressFormer Gov. Eliot Spitzer

"The court is not without sympathy for Mr. Spitzer's desire to avoid another round of the salacious coverage that has attended his involvement with the Emperor's Club," Rakoff wrote. "Sympathy, however, can neither create jurisdiction nor obviate untimeliness."

Rakoff ruled last month that the government must release sealed documents relating to the origins and scope of last year's prostitution probe, which revealed Spitzer had a tryst with one of the escort service's prostitutes in a Washington, D.C., hotel.

Spitzer, a former state attorney general, stepped down as governor March 12, 2008.

The judge said the documents name Spitzer and 67 other people who were clients of the high-end prostitute service. Those other names, however, will be blacked out.

The government has appealed Rakoff's decision to release the documents, which include FBI applications for wiretaps. Spitzer has filed a notice he will appeal.

Spitzer lawyer Michele Hirshman declined to comment.

Rakoff said last month that the wiretap papers should be unsealed "given the strong and obvious public interest in disclosure."

"There is an obvious interest in obtaining information about the origins of an investigation that led, ultimately, to the resignation of the governor of New York," he wrote.

The ruling came after The New York Times late last year sued to get access to the documents.

The government cited a need to protect the privacy of callers and sensitive investigative techniques as it withheld applications for wiretaps on cell phones, including one used by a woman who booked appointments with prostitutes.